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6.2.3: Vehicular Systems and Equipment
A vehicle’s systems are what defines one vehicle from another, even within the same chassis, chassis weight and user type. Vehicles in WCRPG are designed to be relatively easy to build and customize and so there are only a few main systems that need to be installed in order for the vehicle to function. A vehicle’s equipment affects it in many of the same ways a character’s equipment affects the character, defining how hard it is to damage the vehicle and what abilities the vehicle has. Vehicles may have several main systems aboard. These systems include: *'Armor': Some vehicles have Armor plates attached to the vehicle's outer surface. Armor is designed for several functions, including passenger safety and mitigation of damage to the chassis in the event of an accident. Armor is also effective at reducing the amount of damage a vehicle receives due to incoming weapons fire. *'Engines': Vehicles derive their power from a main reactor system, which channels its energy into whatever propulsive system the vehicle uses, be it wheels, repulsors or another type of engine. Regardless of the vehicle type, the Engine will determine how fast the vehicle will move and how fuel efficient the vehicle is. *'Shields': Shields perform many of the same jobs as armor. Shields have two advantages over Armor: they can be added without an HD penalty, and they regenerate over time. On the other hand, Shields are more expensive, they count against the vehicle's accessory count, and they are only available to Starfaring Age craft. Shields aboard vehicles are typically small, one piece combination emitter/charger arrays. *'Weapons': Commercial, Industrial, and (of course) Military Vehicles may incorporate one or more weapons systems aboard. These weapons are included when a vehicle needs an offensive arm for one reason or another, be it to fend off pirates, to provide extra cutting power or to kick butt when needed. Vehicle weapons come in two varieties: guns and missiles. *'Accessories': Accessories are additional systems included in a vehicle to help it perform specific tasks. Some of these tasks include terraforming duties, cargo hauling, passenger ferrying, and weapons delivery systems. Most vehicles can hold only one or two accessory systems, though some can hold many, many more. In addition to these main systems and depending on a vehicle’s chassis, a vehicle may have one or more internal systems, such as sensors or communications arrays. These systems tend to be hardwired into the chassis (meaning they can't be removed or modified) and are included in its cost. These systems can usually be augmented through the addition of accessories. The vehicle's speed governor is considered an internal system and can be removed from a vehicle during the course of game play as discussed in Chapter 6.2). The following Chapter is an overview of these pieces of equipment, what they can do and how much they may cost to add to a vehicle. GMs who are interested in creating their own equipment to be installed on vehicles are more than welcome to create their own (for instructions on how to create equipment, see |Chapter 10.2.6.) Armor A vehicle’s Armor consists of several plates attached to its outer hull in order to give it extra protection. Armor is not a required system for vehicles, but many users are still glad to have it despite the additional cost. Vehicles are limited in the amount of Armor they can utilize without having the Reinforced Chassis accessory installed. Armor falls under the category of Defenses, and can be repaired or replaced while the vehicle is not in use. *Type: Defenses/Armor *Gun/Missile Damage Reduction: None *Effects: +1 HD/BHD/FHD per centimeter. Engines Engines provide electrical and propulsive power to a vehicle. They directly determine how fast a vehicle may go during travel and the number of "spaces" the vehicle may move during gridded combat. In addition to being capable of propelling a vehicle faster, higher Classes of Engine are also more fuel efficient than lower Classes (see Chapter 8.1). If character-scale equipment is installed on a vehicle, the Engine provides a constant power source for that equipment (negating the need for any Batteries). Engines come in too many different shapes, sizes and forms to provide a comprehensive list for all technological development ages and vehicle types. The following is a generic Engine listing. It can be adapted for more specific environments by adjusting some of the basic Engine stats, as presented below. *Availability: Variable (First Class only, Metal Age. Fifth Class maximum, Industrial Age). *HD Effect: -2 HD/BHD per Class level *Speed Effect: Double base chassis speed per level Accessories Accessories are additional systems that can be added to a vehicle’s chassis for additional effects. These really diversify what a particular vehicle is capable of performing. There is no limit to the types of modules that can be added to a vehicle’s chassis (and is perfectly allowable to put the same accessory on a vehicle more than once), though the number of additional systems is limited by the chassis and user. Each accessory has five basic statistics: *Name: This is what the equipment is called. *Availability: This lists at what level of technological development a species must achieve to be able to use the accessory. *Restriction: This lists any restrictions on the types of vehicles that can use the accessory. *Cost: This lists the cost of the equipment, in Cost Points. *Effect: This indicates what the equipment does. Any additional notes on the equipment are included here. Shields Shield emitters are small external arrays that generate a protective barrier around the outer hull of a vehicle, in essence adding an extra layer of Armor to its outer skin. Vehicle-scale shield emitters are small enough to include all the equipment they’ll need in one tiny package, which limits the cost of shielding systems aboard vehicles. Naturally, this miniaturization also limits the effectiveness of vehicle shielding, though it is usually enough to protect the vehicle and its occupants from multiple hits from similarly scaled weaponry. A vehicle may only have one Shield system installed unless a "Backup Shield Generator" mount is installed on the vehicle (the generator and the extra Shield are both counted as separate accessories). Shields fall under the general category of Defenses. *Type: Defenses/Shield *Availability: Starfaring Age *Regeneration: 10% total SHP, plus Engineer's Defenses Skill score, every ten rounds. *Nebula Hit Point Reduction: Non-functional below Class Six. Minus five Classes effectiveness at Class Six or higher. *Gun/Missile Damage Reduction: None *Effects: None Weapons Some vehicles can carry and utilize various forms of weapons systems. The use of weapons aboard vehicles is covered more in depth in Chapter 9.3. Weapons do not count as accessories in and of themselves. However, in order to place a specific weapon aboard a vehicle, a Weapons Station is required. Weapons Stations in general are used to set limits on the number of weapons a vehicle may carry and also help to define the combat arcs into which those weapons may be fired (for details, see Chapter 9.3). Weapons stations are accessories and do count against the vehicle's accessory count. Weapons Stations are described as a phrase, listed out in the following way: , The descriptors that may be used for Weapons Stations, along with their overall effects, are listed in the table below. For example, a Weapons Station with a descriptor of "Gun Hard-Point" indicates a non-armored, single weapon platform capable of holding one gun and firing that weapon along a straight line into a single arc. A more complex example is a "Armored Gatling Nonuple Heavy Ordnance Turret, Double Bay, 50 cm". This indicates a weapons station that has 50 centimeters of armor, is capable of rapid fire, has nine heavy ordnance launchers, can fire in all four combat arcs, and has a magazine of up to 200 weapons. Weapons Stations may be the explicit targets of Targeting actions. Weapons station can sustain 100 points of damage before being destroyed, unless they have been given armored plating. When a Weapon Station is Targeted, Core Damage will not occur unless the Station is destroyed in the attack; 5% Core Damage occurs when a Weapons Station is destroyed. Weapons come in three main varieties: guns (a multi-use projectile weapon utilizing one of several different methods for causing mechanical damage), missiles (a single-shot high explosive projectile weapon capable of a single burst of massive damage), and special weaponry (non-projectile weapons of any type, such as beam weaponry). The following weapons are available for use on vehicles. Each has the following statistics: *Type: The general kind of weapon being described (a gun or missile). *Name: What the weapon is called. *Service Date: The date (Earth equivalent) at which the weapon is available for use. *Cost: This is the amount the weapon adds to the vehicle's overall cost. *Refire: The number of times the weapon may be fired during the course of a standard round, provided the weapon is charged (for details, see Chapter 9.3). *Range: The maximum distance a target may be from the firing vehicle in order for the weapon to be effective. *Damage: This lists the amount of damage the weapon applies to a target upon a successful hit. *Effects: Various sundry effects the weapon may have or cause (for a list of general examples of weapons effects, see Chapter 10.2.6.) Guns, Starfaring Light Ordnance Heavy Ordnance Weapons, Non-Starfaring and Special Equipment ---- NEXT: 6.3 Vehicle Catalog PREVIOUS: 6.2.2 Vehicle Users TOP ---- Category:Drafts